Want to delve in to African cinema, but don't know where to start? Aboubakar Sanogo, film scholar and regional secretary of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers, is here to help. Here he introduces six gems restored by The Film Foundation...<br /><br /><strong>"La Noire De..." ("Black Girl," 1966), dir. Ousmane Sembene</strong><br />The arrival of "Black Girl" not only announced the emergence of one of the great talents of world cinema, but also inaugurated the spread of the global influence of African cinema beyond the continent's shores. Sembene's way of filming (lead character) Diouana, Senegal, Africa would go on to create cinematic vocations and emulations across the world including infiltrating Hollywood's own backyard through its influence on the Los Angeles Rebellion school of filmmakers, including Charles Burnett, who paid homage to the film in his own brilliant first feature, "Killer of Sheep."
Want to delve in to African cinema, but don't know where to start? Aboubakar Sanogo, film scholar and regional secretary of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers, is here to help. Here he introduces six gems restored by The Film Foundation...

"La Noire De..." ("Black Girl," 1966), dir. Ousmane Sembene
The arrival of "Black Girl" not only announced the emergence of one of the great talents of world cinema, but also inaugurated the spread of the global influence of African cinema beyond the continent's shores. Sembene's way of filming (lead character) Diouana, Senegal, Africa would go on to create cinematic vocations and emulations across the world including infiltrating Hollywood's own backyard through its influence on the Los Angeles Rebellion school of filmmakers, including Charles Burnett, who paid homage to the film in his own brilliant first feature, "Killer of Sheep."
courtesy The Film Foundation
Alongside Jean Vigo in France, Mohamed Zinet in Algeria and of course Djibril Diop Mambety in Senegal, Shadi Abdel Salam belongs among the exclusive club of cinematic geniuses who are renowned for making very few films. With its gorgeous colors, delicate costume design and sumptuous mis en scene, in other words, its quasi-mathematical adequation of theme and form, Abdel Salam's monumental "Al Momia" disembalms time and sanctions the drive to invest value in the past, to preserve it, to be literate about it in order to transmit it to generations to come. An absolute must-see.
"Al Momia" ("The Night of Counting the Years," 1969) dir. Shadi Abdel Salam —
Alongside Jean Vigo in France, Mohamed Zinet in Algeria and of course Djibril Diop Mambety in Senegal, Shadi Abdel Salam belongs among the exclusive club of cinematic geniuses who are renowned for making very few films. With its gorgeous colors, delicate costume design and sumptuous mis en scene, in other words, its quasi-mathematical adequation of theme and form, Abdel Salam's monumental "Al Momia" disembalms time and sanctions the drive to invest value in the past, to preserve it, to be literate about it in order to transmit it to generations to come. An absolute must-see.
courtesy The Film Foundation
An offering by Casablanca-born Moroccan film director, writer, director of photography, and producer, Ahmed El Maanouni, Alyam Alyam is a master class in non-western filmmaking. Breaking down the shot-reverse shot grammar, interspersing live action with still images to move the story forward and breaking down the continuity style, creating deeply poetic images of the ordinary, the film is an invitation to awaken our senses to other ways of making films. Its haunting final shot makes the gravity of the decision to leave the home for the elsewhere intensely and acutely felt, with all the pain and loss of separation and the uncertainties about the tomorrows yet to come.
"Alyam, Alyam" ("Oh the Days," 1978), dir. Ahmed El Maanouni —
An offering by Casablanca-born Moroccan film director, writer, director of photography, and producer, Ahmed El Maanouni, Alyam Alyam is a master class in non-western filmmaking. Breaking down the shot-reverse shot grammar, interspersing live action with still images to move the story forward and breaking down the continuity style, creating deeply poetic images of the ordinary, the film is an invitation to awaken our senses to other ways of making films. Its haunting final shot makes the gravity of the decision to leave the home for the elsewhere intensely and acutely felt, with all the pain and loss of separation and the uncertainties about the tomorrows yet to come.
courtesy The Film Foundation
In African cinema, there are names that resonate like charms. They have something of a talismanic overtone to them. Djibril Diop Mambety is one of them. Mambety's films resonate more with surrealism, with the kingdom of dreams, with the realms of madness and excess, in other words, the spaces that push boundaries and approach art and life from original and unusual points of view. To put is schematically, Mambety's cinema eschews prose for poetry, classicism for experimentalism, wisdom for rebellion. With "Touki Bouki," one of cinema's genuine poets offers us a love letter on the beauty and unbounded possibilities of youth
"Touki Bouki" (1973), dir. Djibril Diop Mambety —
In African cinema, there are names that resonate like charms. They have something of a talismanic overtone to them. Djibril Diop Mambety is one of them. Mambety's films resonate more with surrealism, with the kingdom of dreams, with the realms of madness and excess, in other words, the spaces that push boundaries and approach art and life from original and unusual points of view. To put is schematically, Mambety's cinema eschews prose for poetry, classicism for experimentalism, wisdom for rebellion. With "Touki Bouki," one of cinema's genuine poets offers us a love letter on the beauty and unbounded possibilities of youth
Courtesy of Teemour Diop Mambety/The Film Foundation
As Ousmane Sembene's first major film, "Borom Sarret" represents many of his cinematic themes. At once an in-depth meditation on the limitations of the postcolonial African state, a lucid assessment of the first years of African independence, an uncompromising critique of the ruling class, and an unparalleled way of tracing of the emergence of <em>homo modernus Africanus</em>. "Borom Sarret" is a compassionate, empathetic yet highly disciplined and rigorous film.
"Borom Sarret" ("The Wagoner," 1963), dir. Ousmane Sembene —
As Ousmane Sembene's first major film, "Borom Sarret" represents many of his cinematic themes. At once an in-depth meditation on the limitations of the postcolonial African state, a lucid assessment of the first years of African independence, an uncompromising critique of the ruling class, and an unparalleled way of tracing of the emergence of homo modernus Africanus. "Borom Sarret" is a compassionate, empathetic yet highly disciplined and rigorous film.
courtesy INA/The Film Foundation
Med Hondo is one of the founding figures of African cinema who, together with Ousmane Sembene and others, very much personified the political and ethical compass in the aesthetic project of African cinema. "Soleil O" is a bold proposition about cinema; what it can be and what its relationship to our lives ought to be. It is at once an affective, effective and reflexive cinema, a manifesto against calculated and deadly indifference. It is a work several decades ahead of its time.
"Soleil O" ("Oh, Sun!," 1970) dir. Med Hondo —
Med Hondo is one of the founding figures of African cinema who, together with Ousmane Sembene and others, very much personified the political and ethical compass in the aesthetic project of African cinema. "Soleil O" is a bold proposition about cinema; what it can be and what its relationship to our lives ought to be. It is at once an affective, effective and reflexive cinema, a manifesto against calculated and deadly indifference. It is a work several decades ahead of its time.
courtesy The Film Foundation